Tuesday, September 28, 2010

I was headed to the post office the other day down a very curvy and hilly road, and suddenly I noticed it……..a dam. Didn’t even know it existed. I had to stop and snap some pictures.

Now….in my defense I haven’t exactly been living in Canton over the last few months until just recently, but I was a little shocked to this

These are images of Hickory Log Creek dam in Canton, Georgia. It is one of the largest dams in the state at 950 feet wide and 180 feet high. The reservoir it creates covers 4 acres and holds six billion gallons of water…..The purpose of the dam is to provide an additional source of drinking water for citizens.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

I spent some time on Monday with my daughter and a very talented photographer. Dear Daughter was busy getting a few of her Senior pictures taken against the backdrop of the vibrant art and culture of the Little Five Points area of Atlanta.

However, if we had suddenly been transported back to September, 1906 our Little Five Points experience would have been very different……downright scary and dangerous.

You see….Dear Daughter and I are white and our expert photographer friend is black, and if the year had been 1906 we would have been caught up with the Atlanta Race Riot of that year since many of the scenes of violence were centered in the Little Five Points area.

It began on September 22, 1906 and by the time the event ended it has been reported twelve blacks and two whites were killed though some historians argue many, many more were killed. Some advise that some families took the bodies of their loved ones and quietly buried them not wanting to have the stigma of having taken part or having been a victim of a race riot. Others were quiet about the death of a family member because they understood the effect the riot could have on the economy of the city.

Things like that just didn’t happen in Atlanta.

After all……Atlanta is the city that is too busy to hate, right? It seems to me though the city was actually too busy to remember as the details regarding the riot have been mostly forgotten and not taught in schools.

The cause of the riot is actually very convoluted basically ranging from paternalism – a feeling blacks had to be taken care of to negrophobia – where whites believed blacks were always prone to crime and violence. The 1906 governor’s race has been held up as a major cause as the two men running for office both brought race relations to the forefront stating they would do what they could to keep black men from voting. Some historians blame the changing Atlanta economy – from an agrarian society to a highly industrialized transportation hub, and others state changes in black society also contributed. By 1906, there was a definite middle class that existed in Atlanta’s black neighborhoods and there were even a few wealthy families. Another cause had to do with several saloons or “dives”, as whites referred to them, on Decatur Street where black men frequented. Whites were worried about a rise in crime that could spill over into white areas. Add in competition between the races for jobs, a tug-of-war over civil rights, and other issues left over from Reconstruction...... a powder keg was most certainly brewing.

In the days leading up to the riots there had been some unproven reports black men had been attacking white women. Mob psychology took over. At the height of the riot reports state there were as many as 10,000 whites and hundreds of blacks involved. The violence occurred for a few days before the state militia was called out.

New Georgia Encyclopedia states the after effects of the riot include retrenchment of Atlanta’s black community, statewide prohibition and black suffrage, a turning away from the leadership of Booker T. Washington to W.E.B. DuBois who wrote a poem regarding the event titled The Litany of Atlanta.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

We’ve become very accustomed to seeing macabre crosses and wreaths on the side of the road marking some terrible tragedy, but an actual lone grave on the side of the road begs some explanation even though hundreds of people pass it each day with nary a notice.

At one time someone did take notice and surrounded the grave with a fence and actually enclosed the grave with bricks and a marker. A bench was added, a decorative sundial and the remnants of a few plantings still exist.

The grave is at the intersection of Burris and Land Roads in the Clayton Community of Cherokee County, and is at the outer edge of the property belonging to Clayton Elementary School.

The grave is marked Aaron Burris…..1796-1864. The year of death leads one to think perhaps Mr. Burris was a soldier in the Civil War, and was slain by an enemy bullet, but look at the birth and death dates again. Do some elementary subtraction and we discover Mr. Burris was 68 at the time of his death – a little old to be traipsing off to whoop some Yankee butt.

The story goes Mr. Burris was one of a few handful of men who were left behind with the ladies while their men folk marched gallantly off to defend the ill-fated Confederate cause. Some ailment took hold of Mr. Burris and he passed away.

Suddenly the women living in the Clayton Community had a neighbor to bury and no men were around to do the necessaries.

Now…….I consider myself to be a very strong Southern woman. In fact, if you knew half of what I’ve experienced over the last four to five years you would beg me to let you off my crazy roller coaster ride, BUT….prepare my neighbor’s body for burial and dig the grave????

I’m not THAT woman, but – perhaps I need to rethink here – my quickness in doubting my abilities betray the memories of those women and one in particular Sarah Emmaline Land (Cline), wife of James Johnson Land, my great-great grandmother.

The Civil War/Atlanta page at The Examiner has more information regarding women on the home front.

Friday, September 3, 2010

It seems appropriate this close to Labor Day to remember a few labor disputes in Atlanta surrounding the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill.

In August, 1887 a strike occurred when the owners of the mill decided to hire 25 black women to work alongside whites. Over 200 women and 400 men walked out. The strike lasted five days and even the New York Times took notice.

During the 1880s hundreds of women and children arrived at the doors of mills across the state asking for work because mill owners provided decent housing….something that was sorely lacking in Georgia at the time. By 1890, the New Georgia Encyclopedia states of the total of mill employees across the state 39 percent were men, 37 percent were women, and 24 percent were children.

Another more serious strike occurred in 1934 when various mills all over Georgia experienced walk outs. This strike is normally referred to in Georgia history as the General Textile Strike of 1934 or the Uprising of ’34. It wasn’t just a Georgia strike but included workers in the North as well as across the South. Approximately 44,000 workers walked out in Georgia. New Georgia Encyclopedia reports violence was scattered throughout the state including the towns of Cedartown, Columbus, Macon, and Porterdale. There were deaths in Trion and Augusta.

Today, the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills now houses loft apartments for folks who want to live in Atlanta…..It’s nice to see historic locations preserved and used for more than just another museum as this video shows:

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